WikiLeaks' Assange: 2,000 sites now have all documents

In the event of his untimely death or long-term incarceration, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange the sites would make public all the leaked documents his group has, the activist reiterated Thursday in an interview with the broadcaster al Jazeera. Right now, the encrypted documents are password protected.

PARIS — In the event of his untimely death or long-term incarceration, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would make public all the leaked documents his group has, the activist reiterated Thursday in an interview with the broadcaster al Jazeera.

"If I am forced, we could go to the extreme and expose each and every file that we have access to," he said, according to media groups reporting on the interview.

In the interview, Assange reportedly said that 2,000 websites are prepared to flood the Internet with information if it is deemed necessary. Right now, that information is under strong password protection.

Assange noted that the safeguard showed his group was acting responsibly.

In the interview, the last part of which was aired in the Arab world on Wednesday night, Assange alleged that many senior Arab leaders have close ties to the United States' CIA spy agency and that several Arab countries had set up torture centers to which Washington could send suspects for questioning.

Separately, in France, the latest release from WikiLeaks was causing scandal by alleging that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had in the past received financial support from former Gabonese president Omar Bongo.

The released documents said that money had been paid to several French political parties, with some of it used to support Sarkozy.

The Elysee did not comment on the allegations.

WikiLeaks has been publishing the leaked U.S. cables for more than a month now, based on a trove of tens of thousands of documents the whistle-blower site came into possession of earlier this year.